Waves and the Both of Us
by TearThisCanvas
Summary: The ins and outs of dating a merman, plus things Blaine's grandma should have told him.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm not going to let myself write anymore of this until I've finished Assembly, but I just wanted to see what everyone thought.**

One time Blaine found a book in his grandma's living room, when he was five or maybe six, and it was the biggest book he'd ever seen. On the front there was a picture of a mermaid, only he didn't _know_ it was a mermaid, he thought it was a fish that was halfway through eating a lady so he picked the book up and ran into her kitchen where she was cooking his dinner and dropped it at her feet and asked her about it. She chuckled, picking the book up and setting it on the table, and then doing the same with him. She explained that the lady was fine, and she wasn't being eaten, and that she was a mermaid. A mermaid is a lady who isn't a lady, someone who has a beautiful tail instead of human legs, and who lives under the sea. Blaine gazed down at the illustration, transfixed. _Are there boy mermaids too? _Mermen, yes, his grandma answered. _Could I be a... merman? _She chuckled again, and patted his head. Maybe one day.

There was a story about mermaids in the book so she sat with him while he ate and read it to him, tapping his chin gently at the intervals where he would become so drawn in that his mouth would hang open. He clamoured to see the other pictures, the other mermaids with tails every colour of the rainbow and hair that shimmered in the sun amongst the seaweed, and the one merman, this pale, muscular man with black hair and a dark green tail. He was supposed to be the bad guy, but he was Blaine's favourite, the one Blaine stared at when his grandma washed the dinner stuff up.

They spent the rest of the evening in front of the fireplace, talking until Blaine's parents came back from dinner. She told him everything she knew about mermaids, about how strong they are inside and out, and how territorial too. Ones with red tails had special powers, were shapeshifters with psychokinesis, ones with blue tails were musically gifted and ones with purple tails? Well ones with purple tails were royalty. They were all linked by blood so they all made up the royal family that ruled the seas. No-one had seen one in decades, though, they seemed to have died out, so right now the seas were being ruled by an all-powerful red-tail.

_So does that mean mermaids are real? _Blaine wasn't stupid, he knew the difference between real and make believe. But the way his grandma was talking to him... It was almost like _she _believed in them. And she was the smartest person Blaine knew. She told him to tell her if he ever saw one. Then his parents arrived to pick him up.

They saw each other every two weeks after that, and there was only one subject on Blaine's mind. _I'd have a blue tail! I would, dad bought me a guitar! _

_What are weddings like for mermaids?_

_Do they ever come on land? _

Of course he would have a blue tail, and he would have to bring his new guitar over next time, she told him.

Weddings are beautiful. All the merpeople in the sea come to watch and there's a special band of blue-tailed folk to sing you down the aisle. Fish swim in patterns around all the guests and you feast on kelp and seaweed until your tummy bursts!

And the only way a mermaid can come on land, is with the help of a red-tail, who would cast a spell to turn them human. This would mean leaving all your family and friends, because once you've been changed, the odds are you'll never see the red-tail again. Humans and merpeople don't often communicate, but it isn't forbidden, simply rare. Red-tails can turn humans into merpeople too, but that's even less heard of.

He dreamt of kelp and red-tails that night.

Xxx

When Blaine was eight, his family moved to Ohio. It was further from the beach, but his parents didn't care. He only saw Grandma every few months now, and every time she looked older and remembered less about mermaids.

When Blaine was fifteen, his grandma died. He was left the book on mermaids, but it lived at the top of his closet. Well, until one of his friends found it, and used it as proof that Blaine had to be gay. After that, it was hidden in the attic. It wasn't like mermaids were real, anyway.

And when Blaine was nineteen, he took his first trip to the beach, the only thoughts on his mind being enjoying the sun, and checking out the eye candy.

From the sea, Kurt had very much the same idea.

**I'm really, really looking forward to writing this! (Meaning y'all should go leave pretty comments on Assembly so I'll finish quicker! [I'm sorry, I think I'm funny.])**


	2. Chapter 2

The red-headed family were back. Kurt watched them idly as they flocked to their regular spot on the shore, unpacking bottles and bottles of sunblock, flattening towels out on the sand and erecting huge parasols, one for each person. Every Saturday of the summer they had come on this trip together, apart from last week, what would have been their fourth time. Kurt had wondered if they'd simply gotten bored of the beach, but now that they were back he was wondering what kept them last week. A family emergency? Maybe a band was in town that they wanted to see. Maybe they'd all been fighting and didn't want to spend the day together. They looked happy enough now, the two young twins squirting sunblock at each other, the mom distributing juiceboxes and the dad tickling the little girl. Kurt rested his chin on his hand, his elbow on the huge rock he was floating behind. He liked watching that family. They were comforting.

At the back of the beach, a young man was proposing to his girlfriend. He was down on one knee, and she was laughing, letting out a shout as she bent down to hug him. They started kissing in the sand. Kurt remembered them, too. They'd come to the beach what must have been about a year ago now, on a date, and had spent a whole evening walking along the shore, holding hands and talking, and sharing a picnic when it got dark. He smiled to himself as he watched them.

And there was a group of boys playing football. Kurt guessed that they were around his age, some a little older, some younger. Most of them had their shirts off, and Kurt felt a pleasant blush tingle his cheeks as one of them bent down to pick up the ball and his back muscles flexed spectacularly. Boys under the sea didn't look like that. These boys were tanned and muscular, and the boys where Kurt lived didn't see nearly enough sun to be anything more than deathly pale. Kurt was starting to stand out, after spending so much time on the beach, because the sun was beginning to brown his skin a little, but since spending so much time above the water wasn't illegal or anything, people rarely pointed it out.

Kurt had been coming to the shore for about ten years now. He came up for the first time the day after his mom died. People kept trying to comfort him, and he didn't want to talk to any of them, not even Mercedes, so he swam up, and up and up and up and up until his head broke the surface of the water. It was weird at first. He was taking in so much air through his gills that it made him light headed, so he found this rock to cling on to. It was huge, with a flat surface so he could rest his arms atop it and put his head down for a second. When he was feeling less ill, he lifted his head and just started to observe the beach. A woman ran along the sand with her dog. A teenage girl sat at the edge of the water, crying. Countless people lived their lives, on the beach. And Kurt watched.

It was kind of like an addiction. He went up there, every day for at least an hour or two. He had to see the humans, just... look at them, for a bit. They were so different. They didn't know he was there, so he could just settle on his rock and _be _for a while.

Merpeople were fiercely independent. Once they turned sixteen they stopped living with their parents and found their own place to live, and they were usually married by eighteen. Then they had their own children, and then that was their lives. Their children grew up, and their job was done.

Humans didn't seem to be like that. Kurt saw different types of people every day – ones with big families, ones who came here on their own, wearing business suits, wearing all black, some of them were old, _really _old and some of them looked like they'd been born last week. Everyone in the merfolk community was the same to an extent, in that their only ambition was to bear a healthy family and grow old contentedly, but humans weren't like that. They had different purposes, different dreams and different lifestyles and _that _was something Kurt envied to no end.

A new couple ran on to the beach, diverting Kurt's attention. He couldn't see them very well due to the distance between the start of the beach and the sea, but their body language screamed _happy couple._ They were holding hands and carrying beach bags, and she was leading him to an empty spot. They dropped their things and started to strip, the boy brazenly pulling his shirt off and the girl opting to crouch down and tug her dress over her head in a more demure fashion. The boy bounced up and down on his feet as she pulled a bottle of something out of her bag and started to rub its contents on her arms. She held it out to him, and he laughed before taking it from her and tossing it back in her bag. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up, and began to run with her towards the sea. Kurt hid a little more behind the rock as they became clearer to his eye. They did make a beautiful couple; he was slightly darker than her with ever-so-slightly out of control curls and a compact yet toned frame and she was much the same in the way of her body, but with shiny brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and teeth bared in a grin almost as bright as her rainbow bathing suit.

Xx

Blaine swam out a few metres, and then stopped, standing so the water lapped around his waist. There, he allowed himself a few seconds to look out over the horizon. He thought about how invested he used to be in the world under the sea, after his grandma had helped illuminate his imagination. Mermaids and all that stuff – they _were _real, at least when he was six. Sometimes he wished he could still have that kind of imagination, where magic was real and love came after one kiss. Then he thought about how he'd lost faith in that magic, when his grandma had left him, and when his friends had turned away. He had _hated _his naive younger self at that age, and couldn't fathom how stupid he might have been believe in all that stuff. It had been proven to him that life was _life,_ you live and then you die, and it's boring as Hell. That was his only belief anymore. Right know he couldn't remember why. Looking out at the sparkling water, so vast and mysterious, it seemed very plausible that a whole new world could exist underneath it.

Rachel came up behind him and hugged him.

'It's beautiful, isn't it?' He said quietly.

'It is.' She rubbed his forearm sweetly before swimming a few feet away. 'But, I do believe I promised to whip someone's butt in a splashing contest.' Blaine chucked, shaking his head to clear the mist.

'You're going down, Berry.'

Xx

A faint smile came to Kurt's face as he watched them begin to frolick, but his mind was still compelled by how at peace Blaine had looked when he was watching the water. Almost like he knew what existed below the surface. Wouldn't that be magnificent? A human Kurt could make contact with, without it being strange. And a beautiful one, at that. Now that he was closer Kurt could see how his eyes, in fact, his whole face, lit up when he laughed, and how the sun reflected off his skin so he was practically glowing. Yeah. Kurt wouldn't mind seeing that more often.

He was rocked out of his haze by a blood-curdling scream. Focusing on the two of them again, he found himself confused as he saw the girl frantically clutching her arms over her chest and shouting for the boy to _Get it! Get it!_ Kurt turned his attention to the boy and started as he saw that he was swimming directly towards him.

Oh God. They'd seen him and now she was scared because right, Kurt was a monster to her. He willed himself to swim away but found himself frozen as the boy got closer.

And then he realised, the girls swimsuit top was floating towards him, and he breathed a sigh of relief. She was only screaming because her breasts were on display, not because of the scary merman staring at her boyfriend.

The article of clothing hit Kurt in the chest gently, and he picked it up absent-mindedly, feeling the strange material between his fingers and wondering why it had to be so _colourful_.

Someone cleared their throat. Kurt looked up.

Someone – the boy – was staring directly at him, wary smile in place. They stayed staring at each other for a moment, until the boy opened his mouth to speak.

'Could I –' he started, beginning to reach out. Kurt gasped as soon as he heard the boy's voice and nerves clutched at him so fiercely he dropped the swimsuit, turned around and dove back underwater, swimming down as fast as he could.

Blaine jumped as whoever it was disappeared, dropping Rachel's bikini, and he choked back a gasp as he saw a bright blue tail peek out of the water behind the person. His stomach flipped as he suddenly flashed back to the conversations he'd had with his grandma all those years ago.

_Merpeople with blue tails are musically gifted._

_You'll have to tell me if you ever see one._

He blinked several times, shaking his head in disbelief. There had to be some logical explanation, or at the very least his desperate mind was playing tricks on him. He was confused by his beliefs. The sea air was affecting his brain. He was hallucinating. _Merpeople weren't real._

'_Blaine!'_

Oh yeah. He grabbed the swimsuit and swam back to Rachel.

**Sorry if I personally offended anyone with the obscenely long wait; for some reason this thing just did not want to be written.**

**I love reviews quite a lot, as it goes, and I'm really curious to know what everyone thinks, especially as this is a fic I'm really excited about writing.**

**Lots of love to everyone who read this!**


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